Plastic Wastes in the Aquatic Environment: Ecotoxicological Impacts and Mitigation Strategies

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-306-1_14How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Plastic wastes; Aquatic pollution; Marine plastics; Microplastics; Nanoplastics; Ecotoxicology; Waste management

ABSTRACT

Plastic products are in high demand due to their broad applications, resulting to a corresponding rise in the production of plastics. As a result of poor waste management practices such as uncontrolled open dumping, coastal littering, fishing, shipping and other industrial activities, plastics end up in the aquatic environment, where they accumulate as wastes. Recent studies on the abundance/concentration of plastic wastes in the aquatic environment and their resultant ecotoxicological impacts, as well as possible mitigation strategies were reviewed in this paper. Plastics do not decompose easily, and can break down into smaller particles known as nanoplastics (NPs) and microplastics (MPs) which are excellent vectors and sorbents of persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals and pathogenic microbes. NPs and MPs are easily distributed in the environment and also along trophic levels in the food web, and ultimately to humans, while their component chemicals/additives, which are mostly toxic, dissociate and accumulate in living organisms. Multiple studies reported the presence of significant amount of plastics in sediments, water and biota samples. Exposure of aquatic organisms to plastic wastes reportedly caused starvation, entanglement, suffocation, growth retardation, oxidative stress, cytotoxicity, reproductive and metabolic disorders, damage of the digestive tract, mortality, etc. They also induced apoptosis, affected the metabolism of sex hormones, and increased the risk of cancer and metabolic disorder in humans. Proposed mitigation strategies for plastic pollution include recycling and conversion of plastic waste to energy and value-added products, regulations of usage, reduced usage, bans, use of biodegradable plastics, and public awareness programs.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Ebele Geraldine Okeke
AU  - Oluseun Motunrayo Osineye
AU  - Chidalu Irene Okeke
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/12/18
TI  - Plastic Wastes in the Aquatic Environment: Ecotoxicological Impacts and Mitigation Strategies
BT  - Proceedings of the 6th Biennial Conference of Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World Nigeria (OWSD 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 215
EP  - 241
SN  - 2468-5747
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-306-1_14
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-306-1_14
ID  - Okeke2023
ER  -